Roll Tide, Roll: More Alabama Towns Want Draft Beer

On Sept. 1st restaurants and retail stores in Florence, Ala., started selling a revolutionary new product: draft beer.

It took an act of the Alabama Legislature, but Florence bars were able to install taps and start pouring drafts for thirsty customers. Outlets in Florence can also sell beer on Sundays. Now nearby towns are moving to join most of the rest of America in allowing consumers to get a crisp fresh glass of beer.

The Alabama Legislature will meet in February and consider a bill that would allow the sale of draft beer in Sheffield, Muscle Shoals and Tusucmbia. Late last year Sheffield residents voted 768-475 to allow restaurants and motels to sell alcohol on Sundays.

It is hard to imagine, but odd laws governing alcohol sales, some left over from Prohibition, still linger in many places across the U.S. They prohibit the sale of some of the world's great beers because they are over 6 percent alcohol, they don't allow for the sale of liquor by the drink or they make it impossible to enjoy something as simple as draft beer.

If you think these are things of the past that will die out soon, just remember that you actually have a group of legislators in Utah that want to outlaw cold beer and a host of states and local municipalities trying to figure out new ways to increase the price we all pay for a drink with an avalanche of new taxes.